No matter how you feel about our President’s values and behaviors, there is no denying that his words and actions have at times been dismissive, demeaning and discounting of others.

Do his values impact society? Google “Donald Trump values,” and you get millions of hits. People on all sides of every issue are speaking up about the President’s values and behaviors and their impact on this nation, positive and negative.

I feel this candid conversation about the role of values in our country is long overdue. I also feel that, though the national discourse about values has grown contentious, it’s pushing our workplace cultures to evolve.

Here are the reasons why:

1. People are now seeing that character speaks louder than values.

Executives in every industry I serve are -- now more than ever -- placing a top priority on character development: not just their own but that of their senior leadership teams. They’re doubling down on living their company's values when facing intense pressure to do otherwise.

I’ve been developing values-led leaders for nearly 30 years. I recognize a corporate response to a national conversation when I see one.

The vital question is: Is your organization staffed with people of high character -- people who, when the stakes are highest, will demonstrate the values that are nonnegotiable to your company?

If you don’t know the answer to that, I recommend finding out now, before your brand becomes a public case study. Your first step, of course, is to define your nonnegotiable values in observable, tangible, measurable terms.

2. People are catching on that silence about character undermines espoused values.

Since President Trump took office, his use of social media and the national response to his tweets has overturned everything we all thought we knew about transparency. What's the upshot? It’s clear that no one gets a mulligan anymore. Many are called out for their demeaning, dismissive and discounting treatment of others.

Your reputation as a values-based executive is only as good your behavior with others -- and how the leaders you hire interact with one another. If any of those executives betray your organization’s core values with their behavior, you’re expected to speak up, to hold them accountable. Otherwise, you risk tethering your reputation to their sinking ship. Never in the history of mankind has this been truer than right now.

Over the last year, the senior executives I support have stepped up their acknowledgment that transparency is indeed king. They’ve taken bolder steps to codify their values. And, they’ve built innovative policies that liberate people to speak up safely and without fear of retribution when their company’s values aren’t being lived.

3. It’s become obvious that values can mean different things to different people.

Google “How many times has President Trump switched his values?” You’ll get hundreds of thousands of hits.

What does it mean to respect women, to value diversity or to believe in constitutional rights?

Values must be defined behaviorally -- or else you risk being accused of “not walking your walk” when your values come into play, and you take an action that’s different from the one you promised you’d take and others expect you to take.

In the last six months, I have received significantly more requests from publicly traded corporations to step in and help their senior leadership teams define their values through the behavioral lens. HR directors are telling me that they’ve received explicit direction to erase every shred of ambiguity around what it means to be excellent corporate citizens.

Is this increased urgency being driven by our public discourse? I believe it is. Nearly every week, we’re all seeing what happens when a leader creates confusion around the basic definition of a core value. It’s chaos. Strategy falls away. Goals get missed. And, the goals that are met can’t be leveraged amidst all the outrage and finger-pointing.

Leadership doesn’t have to be this way. To be sustainable, it can’t be this way.

4. People are beginning to remember that not all values are created equal.

“Let’s agree to disagree on that one.”

“Let’s find common ground.”

The truth is, some values are nonnegotiable. But, many others are not. Leaders can give -- a little. You can make room for differing viewpoints. You can, through listening, actually learn, grow and get better.

The best executives know this. They’ve long known it. However, most executives don't see themselves as "values police" -- but they must be. Aligning diverse people around a set of core, shared values is both an art and a requirement today.

In the last year, industry-leading executives have signaled to me that they feel reinvigorated to master this art and refine their perceptions around the values they can and cannot negotiate in order to maintain their own integrity and the integrity of their organizations.

5. Executives are prioritizing values alignment as the most powerful driver of human behavior.

At the end of the day, whatever your personal feelings about President Trump's behavior while in office, he’s still wielding significant influence over millions of people in this country who share his espoused values. That influence isn’t going away anytime soon.

Here is the cue President Trump is sending to the corporate executives I serve:

Focus on values. There is nothing on Earth that motivates people to act more boldly than shared values. Talking about values covers a multitude of sins. Values will gain you loyalty and preserve that loyalty long after you’ve ceased to earn it.

But, here is the message my executives are hearing:

Focus on values. There is nothing that inspires people to serve one another more than shared values. Talking about values brings out the very best in people. Build your culture on shared values, and you will earn your employees’ loyalty -- but only as long as you actually live the values you espouse.